


Character study-Charles

by iwtv



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Gen, Part of character studies up to end of season 2 going into 3, how Vane sees the world around him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 08:21:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5449811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwtv/pseuds/iwtv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First out of eight character studies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Character study-Charles

Some nights he still wakes in a cold sweat. He cannot remember the dream but he knows it just the same. It’s of chains and bare feet and bleeding and commands. It is of his childhood. He knows the best way to forget about the dreams is to look at where he is. It is a nation of thieves, he knows. But he also knows it is a nation full of free men women and children. He sees the young girl playing in the tides with her brother. He knows she has never known chains or bleeding or commands.  
He rests.

He loves Eleanor. He always has. Even when she makes his heart bleed. Even when she takes everything away from him and he curses her name, he still loves her. He doesn’t crave power, not like other men. Yet he is powerful. He uses it and all of his resources, al l for her. He will never admit it.  
He suffers.

When she took the girl away from him she took away his freedom. It was unintentional. They would have killed him and her if he had not compromised. No choice. They wanted Eleanor’s blood but he gave them her father’s instead. One must always satisfy vengeance, he knew. He justified it. In the letter to her he listed noble reasons for her father’s death. And perhaps they were noble, but deep down he feels wretched. She will never forgive him, not this time. He smiles bitterly. He has not forgiven her, either.  
He lies. To himself.

He came to Charlestown looking for what was owed him. He was many things—a thief and a killer among them. But he had principles. When a debt is owed, you must always collect. For the first time since he could remember he did not collect. For the first time in a long time he allowed himself to trust in another’s principles. So he saved Flint instead. Saved him and then somehow, without meaning to, conceded the smallest bit of his power to the man. Just a bit. It happened when they boarded the ship again, safe and sound and he still in chains. That was what did it, he realized later. It had been the chains—the feel of them, the weight of them, the coldness of them that told him he was not in control. He grits his teeth. The chains were gone now. What remains is the path he has set himself upon and does not know if he can follow it through.  
He wavers.

When the words reach his ears he does not believe them at first. When it starts to sink in he believes them all too well. Damn her. Damn her for being so foolish, he thinks. He lies to himself again. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Inevitable, he tells himself, that she would at last be captured. It’s out of his control, she is out of his control. She is out of his life. He hesitates and swallows hard. She is no longer free.  
He decides.


End file.
